


Things We Lost in The Fire

by Ncj700



Series: Something Wild [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Plot, Can you tell I like the darker fairy tales?, F/M, KEITH YOU TRUN THOSE WINGS AROUND AND GET YER ARSE BACK HOME NOW, M/M, Multi, Muster the troops, Reunions!, crying?, hugs!, let the chaos begin, slight timeskip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-07-12 06:15:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15989357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ncj700/pseuds/Ncj700
Summary: To save a dragon from himself, and a kingdom from a curse, at the behest of her King a witch quests for knowledge as an alchemist confronts a powerful foe, with a determined Princess, a devoted Knight, and an unwitting dragon tracker along for the journey. The first problem? Finding the damn Dragon. Sequel to War Paint.





	1. Chapter 1

After the dragon had pushed his sister into his arms, and disappeared, Katie had been distraught.

There was no other word for it. She hadn’t been screaming or shouting or showing any other visible anger, but Matt could see it, and she’d cried for hours, even after their parents had been rushed up to the castle where she was being healed of the burns she’d accrued.

Seeing them, Matt was sure that for a moment that her tears had been happy ones. Her face had brightened so much upon seeing their parents. For a while they’d all sat there, basking in the happiness that came in a reunited family, with the exception of Clara (who was sleeping in the rooms provided for them all by the palace staff).

Perhaps it was the shift in normality. After a month travelling, running for her life, and no doubt forming some kind of friendship with the very beast that had taken her in the first place, perhaps it was the peace that made her crack completely.

Matt hadn’t seen Katie cling to their parents so fiercely since she was a little girl, but she clung to their mother and cried, for a long time before she had exhausted herself enough to slump against their father and answer some of their questions, if only to reassure them she wasn’t hurt or traumatised.

‘ _He gave up his human form for me, so that I wouldn’t get hurt,_ ’ she sobbed. ‘ _Keith, he wanted to live on a farm, instead of flying around all the time. He said they looked peaceful from the sky._ ’

Matt had to leave the room then. Not because he was angry, but because he knew he couldn’t give her any of the reassurance she needed right now. He couldn’t protect his sister from her own emotions, however much he might have wanted to.

He also felt that before he could try, he needed some clear answers of his own. Some of them he could guess already, but details didn’t come from hypothesis and curious imagination, but solid fact and trusted sources of words.

He found the Alchemist boy he’d met in Gangnopi sitting on one of the benches in the kitchens, staring at the fire when night fell. The smoke was strangely comforting as Matt sat down beside him, nothing like the shocking fumes that had come from Sendak’s flames.

Hunk had wordlessly handed him a large mug of warm mead, identical to his own, and Matt took a very long, and very grateful gulp. He wasn’t one to indulge in alcohol, but right now it sounded like a good way to blot the day from his memory.

His sister was back, safe and well, but it wasn’t the happy reunion it should have been.

“How’s Pidge?” Hunk asked; Matt glanced at him, and he could see tear stains still marked through the boy’s sooty face. He was struck that Hunk - wasn’t that what he’d introduced himself as all those months ago - wasn’t that much older than his sister, and had that same shocked, disbelieving, distraught edge to his expression.

“The healers say she might have a couple of burn scars but besides that she’ll… be okay,” Matt said. “I think she’s just crying herself out with Mum and Dad right now.”

Hunk smiled warily. “Is it true? Lance told me that Prince Lotor’s mother…she’s responsible for all of this, the culls…”

“We think so,” Matt nodded. “Hard to say for sure, but the evidence is all out in the open now.”

Staring at the mead, Matt took another drink, and stood up, warming himself against the low embers and flames that licked the wood and coals. “Can I ask something?” He asked, slowly. “What happened when you and the drag-” Matt cut himself off, reminding himself that the beast wasn’t actually his enemy anymore. “-Keith were travelling with my sister?”

Matt had a feeling he already knew. He’d watched Katie’s hand stretched out over the dragon’s scales, dwarfed, and seen the muzzle gently nudge her towards him. He’d never seen a dragon be gentle before, and his sister’s words before he had flown away didn’t suggest a relationship without emotional depth.

' _Turn back! There has to be a way! Keith, turn back! This isn’t how you make up for kidnapping me you idiot! Turn back!_ ’

He needed to be sure though, and he turned his eyes to Hunk for confirmation.

“They just worked,” Hunk said so calmly and matter-of-factly that Matt couldn’t help but find it reassuring. “Curses and magic might have been what forced their fates together, but it certainly didn’t force them to stay that way,” he added. “And magic can’t affect someone’s personality. Only the fates themselves could have such a power. I didn’t notice until it had already happened.”

“I don’t know if that’s reassuring or not,” Matt admitted taking a drink. He understood what the Alchemist meant though. He’d had enough explanations on how the spell which had pulled Keith in towards the plateau had worked, and the protection spells.

Watching him during the fight with Sendak, armed with the knowledge that Keith had given up half of his entire being by choice just so he kept his word and helped Katie reunite with their family, he could at least acknowledge that he must have some qualities that were worth the hassle that his draconic inheritance inevitably brought.

His sister wasn’t the kind of girl to waste her time on anyone, friend, family, or otherwise, unless they were worth the trouble.

And yet Katie had been given heartache, and not even by much choice on Keith’s part, if what Hunk said was true, and Matt worried not only for what all this meant, but what it would mean for Shiro and his sister.

Only time would tell, and right now, time was not something on their side. Sendak was gone, but Sendak had been nothing but an instrument in the scheme Prince Lotor’s mother had designed.

At the very least, Matt was certain he would be called up for war duties soon. Hours later, his worries were confirmed when Shiro found them, sitting in silent camaraderie and on the way to tipsy after the days awful end.

“Something’s happened,” he said voice shaky. “With Sendak.”

Matt didn't know who had dropped their mug of mead faster, him or Hunk, as they got to their feet and followed Shiro out of the kitchens.

* * *

The winds were cold above the eastern edge of Talwar Syx, even in the summertime.

Large wings cut through the air, guiding the black scaled dragon through it with fine precision. Below him, he could see a large herd of unicorns, but he didn’t stop, too determined to make it to the coast by sundown.

He had to keep flying north as far as he could. Keith barley remembered the way to the island he was looking for. It had been so many years since he had last visited.

He could see the coast up beginning to appear some distance ahead, so knew it wouldn’t be much longer as the ride of Karthulians to his right began to lower, and fall into flatter landscapes as they met the cold, northern seas.

Snow hung in the air almost constantly now, and soon he would need to find a cave, or some sort of shelter to warm his wings again, lest the trip across the sea turn them to ice.

He missed the warm rain of Griezian Sur, and the warm hands of the tiny human girl on his scales, the warm laugh of his friend but for so long questions had gone unanswered, and now, if his circumstances could have an upside, it was the chance to voice them clearly.

As the sun began to set somewhere behind the snow clouds, Keith landed in the shell of a large snowdrift, and after settling he began to breath fire over his wings, loosening the old scales as he warmed the muscles in preparation for his next journey.

He would have to wait some time. The storm smelled large, and so far north, such blizzards usually lasted several days. It might even be a week before the skies cleared enough to fly again.

He had nothing more than time now however, so he could afford to stop and rest his wings and hunt in preparation for the sea flight.

Turning his head to the south, and the distant shadow of the Karthulian ring surrounding the kingdom he’d left behind, for a moment, he wondered if he should have stayed a little longer first, then turned back to his wings.

Whatever happened next, he needed straight answers, and there was only one person with those.

He’d never spoken to his mother properly before, only guessed her moods from her roars and calls and body language, and could only hope that now that he shared her form permanently the would become clearer.

He needed to find her first though, and so he did the only thing he could till the skies cleared; he prepared.

* * *

Time passed quickly after the battle beyond the Kingstown walls, and in that time, many things had changed, but Katie didn’t really notice them until the focus on repairs and recovery from Sendak’s attack had been put well into practice, and progressed to the point that he could finally go home.

For so long Holtstead had been unchanging, simple, and home had always been a source of comfort and reassurance, the central point in her version of the world. It was still home, still familiar, and in many ways still the same as before she had left.

It took several nights for her to realise the unease came from one of the changes, and her thoughts were inevitably drawn back to Keith.

It was strange how quickly those two days - if it had even been that - with him and hunk at her home had made an impact on her, and even changed her idea on what was normal there.

She kept picturing him dozing in front of the range in the kitchen, and found herself staring into the coals into the wee hours of the mornings, waking sometimes when her dad or mat lifted her back to her own bed, or when her mother put a blanket on her shoulders. It was like she’d expected him to be here now.

“Katie could you settle Clara down for the night?”

Katie turned her eyes away from the low embers of the oven coals toward her mother, then nodded, holding her arms out for the toddler. Her sister’s hair was still damp from her bath, and soon she would be falling asleep.

Or rather she would have if her sleeping routine hadn’t been messed up to no end during Katie’s long absence from her home.

Looking at her mother’s tired face as she scooped her sister into her arms, Katie trued to give her a reassuring smile. Her mother looked older than she had before she left, but never more so than at the end of the night.

“Of course Mama,” she nodded.

Her mother smiled then pressed a kiss first to the top of Clara’s head, then to the top of her own. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she said. “I’m heading to bed, it’s an early start for the trip to Seatown. Try to get some sleep,” she added, squeezing her shoulder with one hand.

“I’ll try,” Katie promised. Sleep had been difficult to find for the past few weeks, but she did try.

As he mother left to head upstairs to her own bed, Katie shifted the toddler in her arms. “All right buttercup, bedtime. You want a story?” She asked Clara.

The girl nodded, as excited as a toddler past their bedtime could be, with the kind of enthusiasm that always began to fade as soon as she was wrapped up in warm blankets with soft pillows.

At first the visits back and forth to the castle had been the main disturbance to her sleep schedule, but now that Katie had returned, her sister had been following her around like her own shadow. She shared her parents’ guess that Clara was scared of her leaving again. It was getting to the point where she wouldn’t sleep without her, but if her mother and father didn’t know what to do, then Katie had no idea.

So, for now, she told her sister bedtime stories and let her sleep in her room till she fell asleep, or let her crawl into her bed at night when she got scared in the night, or came downstairs in the early tween times between dawn and sunrise to make sure her older sister was still sleeping in her own room. The one off from the kitchen, with a direct view from the doorway to the kitchen hearth, and its glowing coals that burned into Katie’s eyes every night.

The flames in the hearth hadn’t stopped burning since the day she had left for the city, oblivious and determined, and every night she watched them through her bedroom door as she told Clara stories, and waited for her to fall asleep.

Tonight, a month from the day since she’d seen a dragon conquered and another disappear, would be no different. After getting into her own nightclothes, Katie clambered into the bed beside her sister, letting the youngster cuddle close.

“Story time,” Clara said impatiently, yet still managing to sound polite. “Katie’s stories,” she said, voicing a preference for the made-up tales instead of one of the story booked piled up on the floor.

“Alright,” Katie laughed, sterling against her pillows as she thought about her words. “Once upon a time, in a kingdom just like Griezian Sur, there was a prince, a mage, and a farmer’s daughte-”

“Like Clara and Katie!”

“That’s it buttercup, just like you,” she smiled, letting her sister clamber into her lap and snuggle. She didn’t comment on the second comparison.

Be it because she was more familiar with them, having seen Sendak and his fire from the castle, Clara liked the stories about dragons the most, so Katie tried to include them in both the ways she had seen them in her tales - as kind people and terrifying monsters.

They were just as much for herself as they were for her baby sister. Katie remembered the feel of Keith’s scales under her fingers after he’d transformed back to his dragon body, and she was desperately trying not to forget how warm they had been.

Above the warmth, they had been hard and strong like a shell, but almost hot enough to burn her hand. The kind of blazing heat that came from a fireplace, when she edged closer and closer, to the point where she could feel the heat sizzling on her skin, but not yet intolerable. The blissful kind of fires her parents had always made sure was roaring during the winter months.

It was strangely comforting. She’d reached her hand up to his scales, feeling them move with the changing movements of the gigantic leg muscles beneath them as he gave an affectionate rub of his head both to her, then to hunk.

It had taken barley a moment for him to spread his wings, and before she could blink or form words of protest, he was gone, off, up into the air.

As he’d flown away, she couldn’t help but notice how graceful his flying was, how quickly and easily he utilised the winds and added to his speed. Katie wasn’t so sure just which part had hurt more; that Keith had left, or that he’d gone back to the sky when it was the last place he wanted to be.

Maybe it hurt more because she knew that. Or maybe it was because she knew he wasn’t really gone, just trapped in his own skin, and still felt he didn’t have a place around humans.

That was probably the funniest and saddest part. The reason Keith had been so unsettled in the clearing, why she and him had been teleported to the castle, was because if anyone had a place in Griezian Sur, then it was Keith, King Garritt’s _nephew_.

“The kingdom prospered through trade until they were beset by a dragon. For years they appeased it with two goats a night, then sheep, pigs, cattle, but it grew tired of animal flesh, and finally demanded a human sacrifice in three months’ time, to befall a curse that would make them her companion for eternity,” she continued, watching as her sister’s eyelids began to droop. “The kingdom had been ravaged by the dragon, and the people pleaded with their king to stop the beast,” she said, wondering how to continue.

Clara looked entertained, and as she twisted her tale into words more fitting for a child, Katie’s eyes went back to that ever-burning fire in the hearth. She hadn’t noticed before just how strong the heat from dragon fire was.

She could feel the warmth at the back of her bedroom, all the way from the other side of the kitchen, even with the table and benches in the way. It didn’t make her feel better but she wanted to bask in it all the same.

“The King’s only son put up his hand and begged his father to sacrifice him first, to protect his homeland and his people, and though his heart was breaking, the king agreed,” she said finally. She’d agreed with her parents that her sister wouldn’t learn about what had happened to her until she was older. “But in spite of his promise, he couldn’t bear to lose him, so he made a plan.”

“Magic?” Clara asked, looking up at her curiously. “Like Katie?”

“Not quite, but close,” Katie smiled, nuzzling the top of the girl’s head. “The king sought out a farmer he was close friends with, and asked him to help him track down a famous Alchemist capable of killing the beast. The king could not leave his Kingdom alone, and could not spare a single soldier from helping to rebuild the damaged towns and villages,” she continued.

“But the farmer, to his sorrow, could not help him, for his fields had been burned, and if the kingdom was to feed, then he would need to replant his seeds and grains before the winter struck. Like the king, he was tied to his home,”

“His daughter however, was not, and she pleaded with her father to let her go in his stead to find the Alchemist. Her father agreed, and so, in the dead of night, she rode out on horseback to a secret mountain clearing, where she met the…” Katie stopped slowly, before smiling at the sleeping toddler now slumped on her belly mid cuddle. “…Prince. Guess we’ll have to finish that one tomorrow night Buttercup.”

Curling up beside her sister, Katie cast her eyes back at the fire. There ought to be no need for it, but the storms at night were frequent and chill enough it felt more like winter than the middle of summer.

She hated it, knowing that her every feeling was being broadcast to the kingdom like that, even if most of them didn’t know the reason for it, but at least the out-of-season chill meant they didn’t have to put the fire out.

Putting her hand up to her neck, she pulled on the cord that held the small, spherical gemstone Keith had given her for her birthday close. Like the fire, the deep, warm glow inside the shimmering, opalescent purple stone was dim, but unwavering.

Keith had said the fun part of it was working out what it was for herself, but at that moment she would have volunteered to be eaten again if it meant she could ask him just what function it had in the fates design. Why she ought to like it properly. Keith had never done anything unless there was a reason or worth to it, so there must be something.

Unfortunately, even after reading her great-whatever grandmothers spell books from cover to cover, and turning the section on Yendailian inside out, she hadn’t been able to find anything that could explain the strange, but comforting gift.

With the glow of the gem and the fire sleep usually came for a little while, but tonight even as she settled amongst the pillows and blankets beside her sister, she wasn’t sure how much chance she would get to rest.

In the end, she never found out. She was woken by her mother not very long after she finally managed to close her eyes.

“Katie, there’s someone here to see you,” her mother said, a gentle rousing hand on her shoulder, and voice low to avoid disturbing Clara.

After a few sleepy blinks, Katie managed to frown. “In the middle of the night?” She protested.

“I think you should speak to them,” her mother urged, hand running through her hair to straighten it a little. “It seems urgent sweetheart.”

Grumbling, Katie reluctantly followed her mother’s advice, yawning as she did so, pulling a blanket around her nighties before stumbling out through the kitchen and into the hallway

She blinked in surprise at the face she saw, standing beside her mother patiently

“Freda?” She blinked. “What is it?” She asked the king’s maid.

Why was she here? Katie had spoken to her before she left the castle, and quickly forgiven the woman when she confessed her part in the recent conspiracies, but she had no reason to be so far from Kingstown. What was going on?

“His majesty sent us Miss Katie, to send for you’,” she said quickly, lifting back her hood a little so Katie could see her face Instead of something ominous, she looked, excited, hopeful. “He sent me to ask for you, for your help Miss, to find the Young Master. His majesty thinks we can find him before winter.”

Her breath had frozen in her chest. Find Keith? She’d be a liar if the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, but where would she even start? Had the king found something? She’d left Kingstown so quickly with her parents that she didn’t really know what had happened after the battle.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I’m not sure for certain Miss,” Freda apologised. “I try not to listen too hard. I’ve made mistakes already, an’ I’ll not be making ‘em again. The King only asked us to seek you out.”

Her mother’s hand on her shoulder jerked her out of the sleep shock, and she stared at her, feeling more confusion when the woman pulled her into a hug.

“Go, I’ll tell your father what’s going on, your sister,” she said. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.” She smiled a little. “You’ve never been the type of girl who likes sitting around and waiting for things to happen Katie.”

The thought of another journey didn’t appeal to Katie at all. She hated bugs, and was generally unsuited to rough travel, but when her mother spoke, she hugged her back fiercely.

Then hurried back to her room, pulled on some real clothes, and a riding cloak. When she was done, her mother had scraped together some food for the saddlebags.

With once last hug, she turned and raced through the door to the stables. Freda was close behind her, helping her to saddle her horse, and soon, they were riding through the rain, down the track and through the gate.

The rain was bitter on her face, but it kept her awake, and made her focus. Her mother was right. She was always better at fixing things herself when they went wrong, and if there was a chance to do something now, then she needed to take it.

Keith had given up everything to help her, and kept his word, but if she couldn’t pat that kindness back, could she didn’t feel that she could even call herself his friend, let alone anything else.

Even if the king didn’t have a plan like she hoped, then she could at least ask to look at his library. He owed her that much, and at the very least it would be a start.

It would be a long process, a long journey even, she could feel that already, much like the ride out to the plateau had been.

This time her head was high not from a facade of pride, but determination, and more importantly, this time, she wasn’t scared at all.

* * *

And so part two begins. ~~ALSO GOOD KING IVERSON IS KINDA CANON I'M SO HAPPY.~~

I apologise for the delay on this chapter, however as I mentioned before and on Tumblr, my work/home/mother's health situation has been really messy for the past couple of months, so I have been very busy trying to sort things as best I can.

My mum is out of her backbrace and collar now, and fully on the mend, and I have also finally finished moving home, having found a bungalow  to rent.

With any luck, that means things are finally going to calming down :) just don’t hold onto your hats for a quick update schedule. Im also working on a couple of other Kidge stories, including Zine pieces, and no longer have a fixed update schedule for this AU anyway.

As always, Updates will be posted on my Tumblr, and any questions about this AU, send me an ask there :)

Thank you to everyone for the support, and well wishes for my mother - there’s a thank you from her too :)


	2. We Have Amassed

The city of Daibazaal had been smoking for most of Shay’s life, and in m most of her memory it was full of fire.

Today, she sat in her room, staring into the small hearth, trying to reconcile those memories with her memories of clans and quiet rituals shared between two families when she was a child. On the mantelpiece sat a warp crystal she was trying to avoid looking at.

She remembered the ceremony that had tied her magic to hunk’s. Or partially them together. It had never been completed, so she’d never had the sense of it or knowledge of its use that she would have gained had her life been different.

She recognised it though. It was hard not to. His very use of quintessence was still the same - gentle, unruffled, and patient, and his mastery of its paths through the earth was something all alchemist aspired to reach. He’d always been gifted.

She just wished she never been able to see how much.

Shay had only been able to spare him a passing glance from the mountain top, but was enough for her to pause.

Hunk might have been her family, once upon a time, but she’d never had the chance to find out. Seeing him again had been a shock. Part of her had hoped he survived the culls, but another part of her had also hoped he hadn’t.

It would have been easier that way.

Getting to her feet, she pulled on a cloak, and picked up the crystal. It was cold to the touch, but smooth and well-formed. It was powerful crystal that would probably serve for several journeys, but she only needed it for one.

With a breath, Shay formed her destination in her mind, thinking of the sandy desert city to the east where word had told of an Alchemy shop near the waterfront.

“Tofo’auala,” she said simply.

There was a crack, and then she was gone, the smoke and light of the fire the only occupants left in the room as witness to her travel.

* * *

 

Katie had expected the castle to look different, but as she and Freda crested the hill that overlooked the town, and looked down onto the fields below where her perception of the world had been pulled from beneath her feet, she didn’t find anything had changed as she had expected.

The fields looked the same as always, and some of the crops that had been destroyed had even begun to grow back. The black scars from Sendak’s fire that had marred the landscape were all but gone, and repairs on the buildings looked almost complete. Only the circle of rubble where hunk had shielded the soldiers during his fight remained as any true reminder of the battle that had been fought.

Had someone used magic to encourage the plant growth or to help rebuild? It was the only explanation she could think of. The rain was still torrential after a week of travel, and mud was caked to every inch of her skin and clothing as they began the descent towards the city. Pulling her cloak tighter around her, she couldn’t help but wonder what made the King so specific about the timescale in Freda’s message.

She knew the dragon tracker that had followed them was in the city still. Hunk had sent letters, maybe he had some way of finding him? He’d managed to follow them nearly all the way to Yendailian, and had the caves not been such a deterrent, she was sure he would have.

They raced down the hill towards the castle, the unicorns' hooves thudding and squelching through the mud of the road as they carried them through the city gates. It was early morning yet, and only a few shops and vendors were up to greet them as they made it through the gates, towards the central walls of the castle.

It had seemed large and imposing the first time she had come here, over two months ago, but it no longer had the same intimidation to its stones and walls anymore. Instead the building felt bitter and gloomy as they handed the unicorns off to the stable hands that greeted them, and Freda led her through the vast main doors.

Another servant led her through to the rooms she'd used before, explaining through the halls that there was fresh hot water and clothing for her after the journey if she wanted it. As much as Katie would rather just go straight to the king and find out what he wanted, she was cold and caked in mud, so the offer was one she didn't pass up.

It felt so strange to be back here. The last time, she'd been rushing through the corridors of a dusty, forgotten wing with Keith, and despite the fact that Keith was a dragon, things had been relatively simple to understand.

In a way, she supposed they still were, only the circumstances made things more complicated, but she knew she hadn’t made the wrong decision to come. Even though nothing had happened and she knew nothing about what would happen next, she felt more settled than she had in weeks.

Keith had gone out of his way to try and help her, so returning the favour didn’t seem like such a hard thing to do. And this time, she knew a bit more. When something happened, she would be prepared.

Once clean and dry, she was led by the waiting maid back down the halls of the castle to the throne room. They didn’t stop there, but a familiar face was waiting for her.

“It’s good to see you again Pidge,” Allura smiled returning the embrace Katie threw herself onto upon seeing the older girl. “Though I wish the circumstances were improved.”

“What’s going on Allura?” Pidge asked. “Why did the King ask me to come here? Freda said he thinks we can find Keith,” she frowned, following Allura as she led to another doorway, one which opened up onto a flight of downward spiralling stairs.

“It’s not really a matter of if we can or not,” Allura said, her face softening, but still creased between her brows with worry. “We have to find him.”

Katie didn’t understand that completely, but she followed Allura down the steps for what felt like an age. They reached the cellars, dark dank storage pits far beneath the castle walls, chilled with damp and smelling of dank plant matter.

The walls were lit by torches, and she did her best not to shiver in the chill as she followed Allura into a large vaulted chamber. Tables and charts had been laid put everywhere, and a large map had been brought to one wall of the whole of Karthullia.

Across the room another familiar figure was standing by word of the tables, his tattoos glowing through his sleeves.

“Hunk!” She cried out, jerking the alchemist boy for his concentration. Hunk whirled around at the sound of his name, and there were tears in his eyes as they reunited.

“Pidge!” He cried, knocking into a table as he rushed across the room towards them. His arms were as warm and comforting as they had been on the journey home from Tofo’auala, through the caves, Yendailian, and the storm she’d plagued her homeland with.

“Please tell me you know what’s going on,” she begged, stepping out of the embrace they both flung themselves into.

“Well, that’s a loaded question,” he said, shoulders slumping. “There’s a lot going on, and to be honest, I’m not sure I understand the half of it myself, but one thing we do know is that… Katie we can break the curse on Keith. We can turn him back into a human,” he said, his voice softer, sounding hopeful.

The words made her chest hurt, and Katie wondered if she was going to start crying again. She’d done a lot of that lately, and she was getting a bit sick of it. “What do you mean?” She asked. “I thought that… you said he was cursed! That’s why he left us, isn’t it?”

It hurt to speak the words aloud, but she couldn’t hide from reality if hunk was telling the truth, and she highly doubted him to be a liar.

“That, and probably a guilty complex, knowing him,” hunk muttered. “And I thought it was permanent too but… after the fight, when you were with your parents, something happened, and now I’m not so sure.”

His face fell, and his expression was pained as he made a gesture for her to follow him through to another of the chambers. It was covered in alchemical circles, and within the centre was another table, this one occupied by a distinct shape covered by a cloth.

Katie knew instantly that it was a body, but when Hunk pulled back the cover, the was no smell of rot. It had likely been spelled to be preserved. Whatever its importance was however, was lost on her as she stared first at the dark-haired man, then hunk in search of explanation.

“Why are you showing me a dead guy Hunk?” She asked.

“Pidge,” her friend said, his eyes going over the burn-scarred body. “This is Sendak.”

* * *

The winds blew harshly over the seas as Keith made his way to the island. The storm had taken several days to clear, and his breath had nearly run out keeping himself warm, but finally, it had stopped.

The break in the water had allowed him to warm himself under the cold norther sun just enough for his flight muscles to ready themselves, and he took to the skies again.

There would be more storms no doubt, but he was rested enough that he could reach his mother’s island long before they fell upon them once again.

For hours, he beat his wings against the cold, pushing himself through the frosty, calm air. Occasionally he landed on some icebergs to rest, and on one particularly large one he stopped to snack on some of the seals that made their home there.

He didn’t care for the taste, but he knew that he couldn’t be picky about where he sourced his energy from anymore, especially not this far north.

Eventually, the larger land mass came into view, and he saw the small rocky crags once again. It had been over a decade since he last came here, too scared, too sad to do so, and then there was the travel. This sort of landscape was unkind to all but the few Bluvian tribes that dotted themselves around the world, and had adapted to the unkind atmosphere.

Even in his human form, it had been too dangerous, and Kolivan had always been reluctant to let him fly, risk losing his choices for the rest of his days.

No longer. Keith had made his choice and he was happy with it. Maybe he’d regret it later, he didn’t know, but he’d done the right thing. Right now, he was happy with that. Katie was safe, and while he missed her, he’d kept his promise.

Swooping does on an outcrop towards the central heights of the island he bellowed, looking around first before poking his head into the cave. From within, there was a shuffle and grumble, before his mother snout and horns appeared, followed by the rest of her body.

Like his own, the once majestic purple scales, identical to Kolivan’s but for a few shades, and spines instead of the white fur that graced his back, were dyed an uninspiring black, but her eyes were his, and he had seen his mother before.

Her eyes Reston on him for a moment, clearly surprised to hove visitors, then she sniffed the air, and as realisation came, she let out a roar of her own. It sung dreadfully of despair and then the distance was gone.

His mother’s neck was not long as Antok, but it was enough for them to sit against each other, curl up with her the way he did with Kolivan and let the scents of flight and family mingle together.

Keith hadn’t worked out how he was going to face his uncle. Kolivan had been against him leaving Marmora for this very reason, tried to discourage adventurous appetites to stop this from happening. He would be furious. Not to mention hurt.

It was hard to imagine that he’d never be able to hold a real conversation with him again.

But he could speak more clearly with his mother. Not conversationally. There were few words in draconic form. Namecalls, cries for certain dangers, a few rumbles that could be applied to specific situations. The rest was based on body language, and of course, it was never the same from one individual to the next.

The draconic that humans learned was simply a writing and reading system for use in human form, and often left unused even then. Hunk had told him this was a great frustration to bookkeepers and historians once. Keith had countered that it was practical.

It was better not to put their culture and habits down in writing of any sort. usually the hunted were just the ones like Sendak, whose actions threatened the flight, but some humans just wanted to rid the world of dragons. Not many, but some. It was better not to make it easier for them.

Right now, he couldn’t talk per se with his mother, but he didn’t need to. Her rumbles were calming, and nuzzles to his snout and horns affectionate and reassuring as she re-familiarised herself with his scent, and curled her larger, full grown body around him to block the chill out of the cave.

Later, he would have to try and communicate with her, find out what Kolivan had never told him if he could, but for now he could take a moment and process the gargantuan change in his life.

The wind had carried him here for now, and as it swirled in ice and snow above their heads, it would carry that grief with it, back to lands beyond the ring of ice.

* * *

 

Katie stared at the body in disbelief.

“This… is Sendak? But he’s hundreds of years old!” Katie slumped in one of the benches alongside the wall. “Sendak was an ancient wild dragon! A really bad one, but he wasn’t a Yendailian…”

She stared back at the body, which certainly wasn't that of an ancient man. It wasn't a young corpse, but he was far from grey haired and wrinkled like he ought to be. He looked around her father's age. His late thirties at most. Even if Sendak wasn't as wild as they had believed, there was no way he should be so young.

“Shiro saw the body change the night you left the castle,” Hunk said sitting down beside her. “At first, I thought it was fake too, but we compared the lingering magic left in the body to the ones in the scales Honerva’s spy gave Freda,” he said. “It’s the same. Sendak probably was ancient, but he wasn’t a wild dragon, and he was cursed. he always has been.”

“So… what does that mean?” Katie asked, trying to rearrange everything she knew (which wasn’t much, admittedly) about dragon history within the world.

“Nothing good, but so far that’s all we can get. though Lance has been holed up in the library and the guild offices for weeks, but there is one thing I think you’ll be interested in,” hunk said, his smile coming back. “Sendak had the same curse that Keith did, or at least it was cast by the same kind of magic. Sendak is dead, but if the curse had been permanent, then his body would have remained cursed even after he died, because-”

“-because curses affect the object, not the state it takes after the curse has been placed!” Katie blurted, remembering Hunk’s detailed lessons in Yendailian vividly. “That means, it can be broken? It’s not permanent! We can really do it? We can save him?”

The brightness of hunks growing grin was all the confirmation Katie needed. The fact that Sendak had been Yendailian all along was extremely disconcerting, but it was her secondary concern. She hadn't left to save her home this time, but for someone she could see as her home, and that person was Keith.

How quickly that had happened scared her. She still knew very little about his life before they met, and she knew there was more she had to tell him, but she's trusted him as a stranger and he'd repaid it twice in kind.

Regardless of her own feelings she wanted him to have what he wanted. His offhand comments about farms had left a sting in her chest for months now, for taking that away from him in her mind, but maybe - just maybe - he might get the chance at a peaceful life after all.

“And his mother, and whoever else has been cursed, but yeah, I'm mostly in this for Keith,” Hunk laughed.

“Which beggars the question of how we find him,” Allura said. “And that's why we needed to bring you back Pidge. Without a keen guide like the clues we had following you, dragons are notoriously difficult to locate.”

“It doesn't help that Keith is fast too,” hunk added.

“I can see the problem, but what does it have to do with me particularly?” Katie asked.

Hunk leaned back against the table. “Okay, so do you remember your birthday?” He asked.

Katie nodded. Miles from home and uncertain of her life’s future, and missing her family as she had, it had still been one of the best birthdays she’d had.

“Do you remember that necklace Keith gave you?”

Katie nodded again, reaching beneath her collar for the gem, which hung on its chain around her neck.

The colour was dimmer than before, but still bright and pulsing. She could feel the warmth of the magic inside it pulsing against her skin when she wore it, and it was comforting. The tiny magical flames inside were like a constant encouragement.

“This?” She asked, holding it up a little.

Allura’s reaction caught her by surprise. Her eyes lit up and shone, like she didn’t know whether to cry or not, and a hand covered her lips.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Hunk said. “Did you ever figure out what it was?”

“Not really,” Katie frowned looking at the pulsating gem in the palm of her hand, letting the heat sink into her skin. “But I think now I can guess some parts of it.”

At the very least, she knew that it wasn’t ordinary magic. It was Keith magic. Precious droplets of it contained inside the stone he’d given her. It had probably been the most valuable thing he had at the time - the very thing that enabled him to live like a human the way he wanted to - and he’d given her this.

“It’s Keith’s magic,” Hunk said, confirming that suspicion. “In its rawest form. It’s his quintessence. As long as he’s alive, and it can’t get back to him, it will swirl and stay warm.” He paused. “It’s kind of a dragon courting thing.”

Katie should have been shocked by that. She wasn’t though. Pretty sparkly things were signs of affection across most human cultures, even some animals. She might not have known the particulars, but even at the edge of a lake, she’d been able to sense that it was something special, significant.

“That makes sense,” she couldn’t help smiling.

“It was kind of funny,” hunk grinned. “Remember the giant fish you guys caught? Keith only said he was hunting one because he needed an excuse instead of telling he’d gone diving for that stone. It needs a certain type of rock to work, usually in Yendailian lakes. But he couldn’t tell you that. Then you asked to help and he didn’t know what to do except go hunting Sturion.”

Katie stared at him, then burst into laughter. That sounded exactly like the Keith she knew. Awkward and earnest in all the best ways, where those traits were the most worthwhile.

“But, dragon flirting aside, that is also pivotal to us finding Keith, because we can use it to trace him. The further away he is, the less bright? Or warm it gets?” Hunk said, getting back to the conversation at hand. “I can’t really judge, it would only work for you anyway, since you’re the one Keith made it for, and they all work differently.

Katie looked back to the jewel in her hand. It had dimmed and faded, but not much, and its temperature was the same as it ever had been. Did that mean she had to work out what signal she needed to look for? Without any context to go by, but her own perceptions, that would be difficult.

It could be anything.

They were in the castle though, and judging by all of Hunks rune circles and spell scrolls, he wasn’t done examining Sendak’s body yet. There was time, and she had something here that she didn’t have in the wilderness, or back home.

Resources. Lance was in the city, and once she’d apologised for shocking him with lightning, he might be able to provide some input. Not to mention the palace library.

It was one of the few archives of magical books and scrolls and artefacts in the kingdom. The king himself had experience with and connections to the Yendailian flight. She knew without having to ask that he would help if it meant removing the curse from his nephew.

“I’ll figure it out,” she said.

She wasn’t certain how, but she knew she would. Especially now that she knew there really was a chance that they could get rid of the curse Keith had allowed to consume him for their sake, for her sake.

That still plagued her, that Keith had given up his freedom so easily. She didn’t know if it was because she meant that much to him, or he thought so little of himself, but there was only one way to find out.

“Can someone show me the way up to the library?” She asked, removing the necklace from around her neck and fastening it around her wrist, there she could see it more clearly instead.

“I’ll show you,” Allura said. “I need to go find Lotor, and it’s on the way.”

Katie nodded, her attention on the jewel. Against her skin, the veins on the inside of her wrist, it pulsed, like a tiny heartbeat. Now the she was looking, paying attention, it was almost as loud as her own could be at night.

Brushing it with a thumb, the warmth spread through her fingers, and through her body like a breath of wind as she began to follow Allura back up the stairs.

She had some studying to do.

* * *

 

So this took a while. I have a lot of projects. Probably too many? Also plot was not cooperative, but were getting there now :) 

un-beta-d bc ~~it's 3am there are no beta's~~ WE DIE LIKE DRAGONS IN THIS FIC.

In case you can't tell, I like Chekov's guns :)


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